We are writing to ask you to reconsider and remove the Writer Beware™ panelist, Victoria Strauss, from these sessions.

The above-named panelist, Victoria Strauss, supports extreme ideals that the majority of logical authors would oppose. The publishing community deserves appointed officials who do not hold extreme positions against truthful, selective and unbiased reporting. We deserve representatives who will reflect values before the publishing community.

We would like to provide some facts for your edification:

Fact: It (Writer Beware™) purports that it “shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.” Selectively? Maybe? Sure, until the scam strikes at home base. In 2007 it did; and, it’s a SCAM of EPIC proportions. It involves the estate of Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck (i.e. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937) . . . yes, that Steinbeck. Huge? We think so. Was the failure of Victoria Strauss & Writer Beware™ to report this scam an oversight or a case where they just turned their heads and looked the other way? Swimming with the sharks? What did this scam involve? In principle, it’s the kind of material that Writer Beware™ built its foundation on. Exposing scams that are relative to: 1) engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; 2) breaching fiduciary duties to a client; 3) obtaining an unreasonable fee; and 4) engaging in conduct which tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute. These are the types of claims that spawned Writer Beware™ and its own version of their boycotts; otherwise known as their “Thumbs Down” lists.

It’s time for the “bright light” to shine into the “dark corners of the shadow-world” of Victoria Strauss, Ann “A.C.” Crispin, Writer Beware™ and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers (SFWA). There’s one name we will not see on any Writer Beware ™ list and we’ll let you decide exactly why that happened. Who was this individual that engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; allegedly breached fiduciary duties to a client; purportedly obtained an unreasonable fee; and may have engaged in conduct which tends to defeat the administration of justice or to bring the courts or the legal profession into disrepute? Well, let’s take a close look at some of the relationships and links. Ann “A.C.” Crispin “thanked him for his help with the SFWA Writer Beware website.” In 2006, Jenna Glatzer (i.e. Bauer vs. Glatzer et al) thanked him for being a “scamhunter.” Victoria Strauss has referred to him as their” “favorite shark.” [Note that the word “shark” is slang for a lawyer. It’s also a term for “a person who preys greedily on others, as by cheating orusury” and/or as a verb to “to obtain by trickery or fraud; steal.”] He represented “people who claimed they were defrauded.” He also goes by “Jaws” on some of the infamous writer and author awareness blogs. He was also known as the “Authors Lawyer.” His ties to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers (SFWA), Writer Beware™, Ann “A.C.”Crispin and Victoria Strauss are well documented; he worked “closely” with them and had frequent correspondence with Teresa Nielsen-Hayden. He called Victoria Strauss a “colleague.” Who was this highly lauded “scamhunter”? Charles Emil Petit. Also known as Charles E. Petit, Charlie Petit and/or C.E. Petit. AKA “Jaws.” Charles E. Petit is also believed to be an Absolute Write Moderator and frequent contributor and commenter on Writer Beware ™. Confidential sources indicated to The Write Agenda™ that, at one time, all complaints and “cease & desist” letters regarding Writer Beware™ were to be directed to Charles E. Petit. On information and belief, it appears that he did accept service of process for several defendants in the Bauer vs. Glatzer in 2007. This may have also included Jenna Glatzer and Miss Snark. Petit never actually represented any of the defendants. He couldn’t because he’s not licensed in New Jersey. He did accept service and then referred the case to local New Jersey attorneys. He was subjected to disciplinary action, by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, after a complaint was filed by Nancy Steinbeck who was the former wife of John Steinbeck IV, the son of author John Steinbeck (see below). Charles Petit was the attorney of record for the SFWA and Writer Beware™. To read this case in its entirety please go the following link:

Fact:: A blog posting by Writer Beware™, regarding American Book Publishing, raised our curiosity and inquisitiveness. Victoria Strauss has posted on numerous internet sites that American Book Publishing has been the subject of a police “investigation.” In addition, under its “Alerts for Writers” section, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) also states “American Book Publishing has been the focus of at least one police investigation.”

Consistent with the applicable Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we conducted some extensive (exhaustive) research with the appropriate law enforcement agencies. As a result, we have neither located evidence nor reports of any “investigation” involving American Book Publishing in these jurisdictions. The only “investigation” that we did locate involved a “theft” at the residence of Ms. Nunn, an American Book Publishing principal who had a break-in to her home and also sustained damage thereto. The unanswered question to Victoria and the SFWA is “where is the investigation”? Where is the documentation and evidence? Based on these results, we believe that these are very serious allegations to be making if no such “investigation” has been undertaken. In the interest of good business ethics, these postings by Victoria Strauss and the SFWA should be deleted, retracted and apologies should come forth immediately if they are unable to produce any primary source material as evidence of an investigation. Considering the lack of evidence, it would also be interesting to know exactly what the true motivation was and why Victoria Strauss and SFWA posted this information. However, at this URL: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/alerts/#American , if you follow the links, Victoria Strauss offers as “proofs” evidence secured from the Wayback Machine . . . an Internet archive service as proof of her claims. In response we contacted all enforcement agencies in the area and our findings may be read here:

“SFWA members: this year it’s IMPORTANT to vote in the upcoming officer elections. Theodore Beale, a.k.a. Vox Day, is running for SFWA President. If you know the name, you’ll know why that’s scary. If you don’t, read the post below… My cat would be the better choice. And my cat is dead.” [Emphasis added]

Fact: Victoria Stauss was a defendant in the Bauer vs. Glatzer case. The case, in our opinion, was nothing more than a cyber-bullying case. The allegations against Victoria Strauss included: Victoria Strauss published false and defamatory statements about plaintiffs Barbara Bauer and BBLA on WB (i.e. Writer Beware™), including, but not limited to, posting a list of the “20 Worst Literary Agents”, which includes false and defamatory statements about Barbara Bauer, including the statement that Barbara Bauer is among agents that have no “…significant track record of sales to commercial (advance paying) publishers…” This defamatory publication was posted and quoted extensively on numerous other websites and blogs on the internet. Strauss has also referred to Barbara Bauer on WB (i.e. Writer Beware™), as a “…scam agent…” and alleged that she engages in “… dirty business practices …” Strauss has also published and continues to publish false and defamatory statements about plaintiffs on other blogs and websites including, but not limited to claiming that plaintiff has “… no documented and verified sales at all.” There was only one Defendant exonerated in this case . . . Wikipedia. See:

Fact: Victoria Strauss is not a successful author. At age 59, 42 years after writing her first debut flop, Victoria Strauss has once again repackaged her old cold suet. If she learned so much about writing “since” that time it certainly has not been anything akin to successful authorship. Or, maybe the public-reclusive Strauss just never learned to put it into practice. It’s painfully obvious that Strauss, while isolated, tweeting and blogging in her cozy Amherst, MA home, has amassed over 13,000 Twitter followers, and yet hasn’t transformed her social followers into actual book purchasers.

What has she learned? Surely, whatever she “learned” about “writing” has resulted in a very unsuccessful literary marketing effort and career that has now spanned decades. However, you “got” to give her the credit of a punch drunk fighter . . . 42 years of pushing the same old cold suet; the book-buying public is still not buying it. Nevertheless, she jumps back up, puts a new cover on it and schlepps it out again. Only Victoria Strauss would use Writer Beware™ again as a platform for self-promotion. Statistically, that strategy has failed as well.

FACT:Victoria Strauss hasn’t released a single book that has stood up on its own original merits. . . repackaging . . . new covers . . . new publishers . . . doesn’t help old cold suet . . . it’s corn.

The original release of this book [The Lady of Rhuddesmere] listed on Amazon has ZERO reviews and a sales ranking over 12,000,000. No matter how you repackage it . . . it’s still corn. Don’t judge a book by its cover? It’s still corn. Strauss has somehow come to the conclusion that forced Cornilingus on the book-buying public will eventually result in literary success.

FACT: The significance of Writer Beware™ as an asset to writers is diminishing. We are also witnessing the demise of Writer Beware (WB) and its significance. Based on visitor’s commentary, the real interest and visitor engagement with WB peaked in 2007 when 447 comments were amassed by the site. Since 2011, the year that The Write Agenda launched, commentary on WB postings have significantly dropped: 417 (2011), 231 (2012), 139, and (2013) and 148 (2014). From 2005 – 2014 a total of 3275 comments were made; 324 were posted by WB administrators and Victoria Strauss has contributed the highest volume of them. Michael Capobianco, Ann “A.C.” Crispin and Richard White have done little on the WB site. Their contributions to the commentary pale to those of Victoria Strauss’.

During 2011 WB averaged 5 comments per post (CPP). These averages have dramatically dropped since that time: 3 CPP (2012), 2 CPP (2013) and 2 CPP (2014). During the 10 year history only 2 posts have ever accumulated more than 100 comments. During 2011, one of these posts generated 146 comments; 35% of the entire comments for that year. One post where the commentary was nearly equal to the entire remarks made in 2005 (143), 2013 (139) and 2014 (148). A 64% drop in visitor comments clearly represents a demise in visitor engagement and the significance of Writer Beware and Victoria Strauss.

Writer Beware Drops in Alexa Rankings

Please . . . seriously, examine your conscience. Having Victoria Strauss on these panels is a joke and an embarrassment to your organization. Furthermore, having Victoria Strauss this panels will prove to be a joke and an embarrassment for those attending this conference.

Thank you for your consideration of our position regarding these important issues. We welcome your comments.

Those Pesky Legalities

In New York and in Washington State, it’s illegal to register a business under an assumed name unless you also register your assumed name as “doing business as” (DBA). You can review the regulations at New York’s Division of Corporations and Washington’s Business Licensing Services pages. This is important because, at the time of this writing, MacAllister Stone, owner of Absolute Write, lives in Washington State and has Absolute Write registered in New York. However, MacAllister Stone is not a real person. Her real name, Melodi Susanne Sherman, is not registered as a DBA of MacAllister Stone in either state. That makes Absolute Write, the business entity, illegal [Emphasis added by The Write Agenda.].

I’m especially bothered by this for two reasons: I’m a fan of Writer Beware, and I don’t like that they’re unwilling to expose illegal or unethical behavior perpetrated by their friends; and it means I have to agree in part with The Write Agenda, whom I can’t stand [Emphasis added by The Write Agenda.].

Months ago, The Write Agenda (who doesn’t deserve a link; look them up if you’d like) posted about MacAllister Stone submitting a pseudonym and false address when Absolute Write was named in a lawsuit. I assumed it was a lie because TWA posted it. It was a slow day and I was curious, so I spent the afternoon poking around the Internet and public records. [Emphasis added by The Write Agenda.]. I [sic] didn’t take me long to locate a site called Forums Review, who seem to have an issue with Absolute Write as well, MacAllister Stone in particular. (In case you’re wondering, AW mods, no, I don’t have a connection with this site either. I tried to contact them through email because I didn’t want to have to create this blog, when they already had a perfectly serviceable one to which I could contribute. They never replied.) [Emphasis added by The Write Agenda.].The name Melodi Sherman was all I needed to find proof that she and MacAllister Stone are the same person. (Sorry to all those who were certain Lisa Spangenberg was MacAllister in disguise. Public records show otherwise.) It only took me two or three hours to track everything down. Why people think they can remain anonymous–to the point that they lie on legal documents!–is beyond me. [Emphasis added by The Write Agenda.].

Absolute Write’s address as listed in the WhoIs information visible on the Forums Reviewsite. To all the concern trolls or potential stalkers, this address is no longer her current address. It belonged to a ranch that Melodi managed, as shown below, and was sold several years ago. Don’t be asshats to the current owners, mkay?

The WhoIs information for LakeviewRanchRide.com, now defunct. Melodi is still using the username visible here, although the email address has changed.

Here’s an endurance ride from Lakeview, right before it closed. Melodi is the assistant manager and owner of the email used to register the domain.

I’d love to understand why Melodi thought her name was so secret that she committed perjury and fraud so she didn’t have to reveal it to anyone. I don’t plan to stalk or harass MacMelodi. Someone might, I suppose, but Lisa Spangenberg (real name) and Victoria Strauss (real name) seem to do just fine. They get pestered online, but people do that all the time even without knowing a real name.

This is speculation, but I would guess it’s because she doesn’t want to lose face in the Absolute Write community. She portrays herself as a publishing professional in order to reign over the forums. In reality, though, her only publishing credit is her thesis, a rather dense and unremarkable treatise on Stephen King.

In summary, Absolute Write and its owner, MacAllister Stone aka Melodi Sherman, are guilty of crimes the Bewares topic and Writer Beware regularly expose. Melodi has no grounds for mocking anyone on a high-profile industry forum that posts publishing advice. She’s barely qualified to edit other people’s work for money; an MFA from a state university doesn’t replace real-life experience (running a ranch and trimming horses’ hooves don’t count toward that experience). Worst of all, Melodi has committed perjury when providing false data to the New Jersey courts, and fraud when registering Absolute Write as a business entity.

I wish I hadn’t had to post this. I shouldn’t have to. Make it right, Absolute Write and Writer Beware. Or you’re as bad as the criminals you claim to oppose, and you’re hypocrites too.

“Some people make the planet a better place for having got the hell off it, eh?”

Tom Dark

Ann “A.C.” Crispin is dead from cancer. Should she rest in peace? We think not.

Crispin, who was much more accomplished as an author than her accomplice, Victoria Strauss, was a woman that spewed hate and revenge; the veracity of some of her claims are still under scrutiny. Victoria Strauss pales in comparison as an author. (Strauss, if you have not noticed, has become more “publicly” angry recently.)

Writer Beware has been nothing more than the marketing arm for both Ann “”A.C.” Crispin & Victoria Strauss to the “under-educated” authors that frequent the site. Fortunately, neither Ann “A.C.” Crispin nor Victoria Strauss have become household names from this farcical endeavor called “Writer Beware”; there are better sites for new authors to get information from (Absolute Write is not a good reference source either). And . . . who the hell is Richard White and why would a new author want to treasure his advice?

Please help The Write Agenda document the hate speech of Ann “A.C.” Crispin; authors deserve to know the truth. Rest in peace? No, rot in hell Ann “A.C.” Crispin and we’ll show the world exactly what your agenda truly was. Please send your quotes and sources to The Write Agenda here.

We recently posted an update on the literary midget, Victoria Strauss, and her historical book sales. SeeVictoria Strauss . . . Book Sales Records Updated. Strauss has indicated that during the Summer of 2014 she will be releasing a sequel to her latest literary flop (Passion Blue), titled Colorsong. Huh? A sequel to a book that is currently ranked 1,092,615 on Amazon? Yet, ROTFL, it received a Kirkus Star? That’s a book that is selling approximately 3 copies every 500 days. What spawned this literary talent and why hasn’t the New York Times stopped to recognize it? Victoria? Why bother. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate things . . . spend some time at the Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard . . . grow your hair out and donate it to Locks of Love or something. Authorship just isn’t working for you sweetie!

Time to wake up people and begin to recognize the fraud that is being perpetrated against you . . . all in hope of promoting Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware and Ann “A.C.” Crispin.

Seems like the Screenplay by Roy C. Booth and Rachael Saltzman still isn’t going anywhere. No contact with Facebook users since January 2013. In addition, there has been numerous (failed) attempts to fund this project. We’re still amazed that James Macdonald, Victoria Strauss & Ann “A.C.” Crispin have not stepped up to fund this project. Since they’ve promoted it heavily, is it just the fact that their book royalties are so low that they cannot afford it? No Blockbusters here.

The book and the story behind it were optioned for a film in February 2011 by producing team Roy C. Booth and Rachael Saltzman, who were also slated to co-write and co-direct the film. The options money has gone to the SFWA Emergency Medical Fund. Production was tentatively scheduled to begin August 2011, but on 16 May 2011 the crowd funding campaign ended without reaching its goal.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Mahatma Gandhi

If you follow Writer Beware, Absolute Write etc., you’ll notice that Tom Dark has quite a flurry of activity going on. Many of the recent postings have caused some people, like Lisa L. Spangenberg, to launch into “protection” and “salvation” mode; otherwise, they would just ignore Tom Dark . . . they’re not.

Dark, in a couple of very astute Twitter postings, has pointed out a couple of the shortcomings of Victoria Strauss, her followers and other like-kind sites. They attack, criticise, call you names (i.e. “crazy”) and defuse . . . yet, they never respond to the claims against them. For example:

[Theodore Beale’s blog posting today. Once again, Beale has demonstrated that he is a real force to be reckoned with and why Scalzi, Strauss, Hines, Nielsen-Hayden & others fear him. Well done “Theo” . . . Well done. Interesting that the statistics have increased during the 2013 SFWA Election – The Write Agenda]

Thanks very much to everyone who visited here in April, especially those who took the time to get involved in the various discussions in the comments. I remember scoffing when ten years ago a reader predicted that this blog would one day have a million pageviews in a year, so it seems incredible to me that VP and AG now see that level of traffic in a single month.

With a few notable exceptions, most blogs hide their traffic reports these days, but I think this is a tactical blunder. The primary problem with doing so is that it allows the Left to dishonestly attempt to marginalize right-wing blogs in the eyes of others. Recall that I have been portrayed for ten years as an extremist whack-job whose writing no one read even as the readership steadily grown, and I was regularly reminded that PZ Myers, John Scalzi, and a number of other left-wing bloggers all had much bigger blog readerships than I did… until it was revealed late last year that the traffic here alone, (never mind that of the WND columns that those bloggers were reading and attacking), had passed up some of those blogs almost two years ago! Never forget, the Left is heavily dependent upon lies, and one of their biggest lies, perhaps the one to which they resort the most readily, concerns their pretense that their opinions enjoy much more popularity than they actually do. Therefore, the more metrics that are visible to everyone, the less they can get away with it.

That is why I make my Sitemeter and Google Analytics statistics public. (VP uses the old template, which is why there is no monthly traffic widget in the sidebar as is the case with AG.) That’s why I’ve begun a quarterly Top 10 Game blogs report that I expect to expand to a Top 25 report in the second quarter. That’s why I encourage everyone who is in any way sympathetic to the neoreactionary traditional Relightenment to be open and public with their statistics. The truth is on our side. Victory through data!

Let’s face it, it is very difficult for the rabbits of Whatever to continue to claim that the Chief Gamma Rabbit of their warren is a vastly influential individual, and their sick transcis-quax-gendered view of human intersexual relations is the mainstream perspective, when everyone now realizes that Whatever has only two-thirds the traffic of my blogs and one-quarter that of the Great Prophet of the Crimson Arts. Open metrics make it clear that it is the influential Cathedralites such as Jim Hines (Alexa Rank 729,110) and Making Light (375,254), who are actually the marginal ones. Despite their artificially elevated positions in the field of SF/F, they cannot maintain sizable blog readerships, not even with the benefit of occasional puffing by their ideological allies in the mainstream media. They may be big fish, but they are big fish in a much smaller pond than the ocean they attempt to claim.

It’s not that their opinions aren’t relevant or that no one shares them, it is merely that their perspective is nowhere nearly as dominant as they are desperate to have you believe. They can run from debate and they can refuse to permit substantive criticism or even a semblance of genuine discourse on their sites, but the one thing they cannot avoid is the harsh light of statistical reality exposing their pretenses.

It is ludicrous to imagine that it is popular writers such as Sarah Hoyt and Larry Correia who are the societal outsiders when their influence is an order of magnitude or more larger than most of the supposed “big names” in modern SF/F. Sure, the Cathredralites sell more books, for the time being, because their capture of the genre’s gatekeepers means they have access to its media and distribution channels. But what we are seeing now is the early stages of a Fox News-style transformation in the SF/F industry, as new media outlets and new transmission channels is in the process of seriously upending the tilted playing field. The cultural battle in SF/F isn’t over, as the self-appointed winners would have you believe, the heavy cavalry is just beginning to enter the field and the unarmored footmen without shields are quaking.

However, the fact that the Left is wrong about equality, wrong about economics, wrong about the past, and wrong about the future does not mean there is nothing that we of the Right cannot learn from them. The one thing the Left does very, very well is the force-multiplication of its various assets, no matter how small and insignificant they truly are, and that is something that the neoreactionary Right will have to learn in order to mitigate the damage our progressive counterparts have inflicted upon us and upon themselves. That’s why I’ve created the Standout Authors and Friends of Narnia, and I encourage other writers and bloggers of the Right to devote at least some effort to building up others of the Right even as they continue to pursue their own diverse and independent ambitions.

Consider that Prospect Magazine declared the top World Thinkers of 2013 on the basis of 10,000 votes. 10,000 votes! That’s nothing, and yet the Left will gravely – and absurdly – pretend, on that basis, that Richard Dawkins is widely considered to be the greatest intellectual of our time.